For friendlier flying

Scott McCartney, who writes the Wall Street Journal's "Middle Seat" column, has compiled a handy list of tips and strategies for making air travel much less painful:

This guide -- based on nearly three years of writing The Wall Street Journal's Middle Seat column, a decade of industry reporting, and countless hours wedged between armrests -- offers some strategies. Among them: How to skip those maddening check-in lines using only your index finger, which device pro travelers use to keep from spilling their loose change at security (hint: you've probably got a pair of these), and which is the best plane to fly if you're really tall, or need to lose a few pounds of baggage around your waistline.

We'll even tell you how to avoid the public display of underwear without getting patted down .... Some tips are simply common sense; some are carefully air-tested strategies from veteran road warriors.